This lunchtime, Ed Miliband squared up to David Cameron – who gave Left Foot Forward a special mention – for his first PMQs since becoming Labour leader.
Ed Miliband took to the despatch box today and squared up to David Cameron – who gave Left Foot Forward a special mention – for his first PMQs since being elected as leader of the Labour party. And after some early formalities, Miliband immediately began to attack the Government over the handling of its child benefit policy:
“Let’s be honest, the Chancellor sits there, this policy has been a shambles from day one. The rest of the cabinet knew nothing about it, the local government secretary said he had found out from the media that it was being announced, the children’s minister, I can’t see him, he went on the run because he was too scared to defend the policy.
“I bet the Prime Minister wishes the BBC blackout had gone ahead it was such a shambles, his conference.”
This was Miliband’s swift response to Cameron’s criticism of Labour; in particular that it offered “no alternative”. The prime minister cited Miliband’s July interview with Left Foot Forward, and taunted the new Leader of the Opposition:
“He said in July this year, ‘Whoever is the Labour leader will be that the time of the spending review have to shadow they have an alternative plan’. Where is the alternative plan?
“This was a speech he made to an organisation called Left Foot Forward, could I suggest he puts both of his left feet forward and tell us what the plan is?”
Watch it:
Other highlights of the exchange included Miliband mocking Cameron’s preposterous “Cameron Direct” events – one such event held in Bolton, where the prime minister promised to defend child benefit as it was. Miliband demonstrated early confidence, mocking the prime minister for evading his questions:
“That’s naught out of two on straight answers, straight answers to straight questions.”
Another well-timed joke saw Miliband turn the prime minister’s tactic of answering questions with another question back onto him:
“I’m new to this game, but I ask the questions and he should answer them.”
Although it did not represent a comprehensive victory for Miliband, it would have certainly eased any remaining fears people may have had that he wasn’t up to the task.
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17 Responses to “Cameron: Miliband should put “both of his left feet forward””
Evidence based.
Bit of a coup for you guys really. Would be interested to know if you have a spike in terms of the blog traffic you recieve.
Whilst Mili did win PMQ’s today, I agree that I don’t think that this is particularly electorally smart from Labour. Generally those on 44kplus aren’t their natural voters and i think in time it will look odd, when their cuts are set out, that they want Millinaires to recieve benefit.
Simon
PMQs is a bit of a sideshow to rally the troops. What’s more important is that Labour come up with an alternative to the doom-and-panic deficit hysteria being used to justify shock-doctrine therapy that the public don’t understand or want.
Ash
He should tackle Cameron over his mixed messages on Child Benefit: half the time he talks as if he didn’t want to cut it but reluctantly decided he had to, and half the time he talks as if he’s proud of having righted a long-standing injustice. Which is it?
Incidentally, I think there are already signs that this attack on universalism will indeed ultimately end up benefitting the rich at the expense of the poor (as Nicola Smith & others have been arguing): already we’ve seen pressure on Cameron to cut taxes for the rich to compensate them for their loss (e.g. by extending the marriage tax break to top-rate taxpayers), and already the voices calling for child-related benefits for the worse-off to be cut back are getting louder. Less than a week after the abolition of CB for higher-rate taxpayers, the BBC were hosting a debate and conducting a poll (on Sunday Morning Live) on the question “Should we still be paying people to have children?”
Anon E Mouse
Ash – Can someone from the left please explain in simple terms why it is fair the night shift, shelf stacker’s taxes pay for Eric Clapton’s daughter.
Not a single person on this blog has said it’s right yet people keep prattling on and won’t answer the central issue of fairness.
Labour are going to look pretty bad if they keep up this line of attack. Universal benefits are a dinosaur that need scrapping – socialism never worked anywhere in the world and there’s no reason why Britain would be an exception.
Ed Miliband claimed he was the new generation. Doesn’t seem much different to the last one to me…
Mr. Sensible
Mr Mouse, I don’t want to resort to a Cameron tactic, but…
How is it fair that a household with a combined income of £60000 will keep their child benefit, whereas someone who’s just over the threshold loses it?
It won’t even cut the deficit; if Cameron extends the regressive married couples allowance to higher-rate taxpayers, the IFS has I believe calculated that this could £1 billion, thereby almost whiping out any savings.